The European Union on Thursday slapped Google with fines worth €890 million (US$1 billion) in a move that risks escalating tensions with the United States. The EU fined the US giant €460 million for illegally favouring the company’s own services – for example, Google Flights or Google Hotels – over rivals in search results. The second fine worth €430 million was because Google did not allow app developers to show consumers offers, free of charge, outside its Google Play store, the European...
The EU on Monday slapped a €550 million (US$630 million) fine on online retailer AliExpress for allowing the sale of illegal products, including unsafe toys and cosmetics. The European Union said AliExpress also did not do enough to stop the sale of counterfeit products and that when the platform detected illegal goods were on sale, many remained online for several weeks. The EU found some of the products sold on the platform did not meet the bloc’s strict environmental and safety standards...
Apple lost its challenge on Wednesday against landmark EU rules that designate its app stores and operating system iOS as gatekeepers subject to obligations aimed at giving rivals more room to compete. The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets out a list of dos and don’ts for Big Tech with the threat of fines of as much as 10 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover, has triggered legal challenges by Apple, Meta and ByteDance since it took effect in May 2023. The ruling by the...